This week’s cover story features The Outlet, its new home and big plans for the future. It is a story of Springfield coming together to address the crisis of men and boys. Boys are struggling in the classroom. By high school two-thirds of the top 10 percent of the class are girls, while about two-thirds of those in the bottom 10 percent are boys. A new book by Richard Reeves, Of Boys and Men, explains these troubling statistics and many more. Boys in Michigan told Reeves that women are more motivated, work harder and plan ahead. “Many men just seem less ambitious,” writes New York Times columnist David Brooks, describing what he calls the “aspiration gap.” He writes: “More men are leading haphazard and lonely lives.” And: “Masculinity has gone haywire.” This is the context in which Springfield’s The Outlet is expanding its program to give boys mentors, help and hope. – Fletcher Farrar, editor
This article appears in Mentoring young men.
